Just another example from the 7th August Smethwick News Telephone about the dangers that this site posed to the surrounding public. Their “made in Oldbury” propaganda hid things like this from public view except when loud explosions, fires and of course at this time, “smells” became impossible to ignore.
This one would have made front page headlines today if it had happened, but with just a few lines of copy here, one must appreciate that this was a frequent occurrence associated with this site. Our old friend white phosphorus is at play here, and at this time, the furnace known as “old smokey” to staff was still polluting the air around Langley with a deathly noose like grip.
Always these articles read as “heroic” action, instead of asking the serious questions such as WHY did it happen, and should it be allowed to continue just so one company could continue to make money whilst putting people under grave risk of harm?
All of that contaminated sand would have gone somewhere of course, and that place obviously was by boat waste delivered to a certain marl hole they were in full operation of disposing into at this time.
